Forum - View topicNEWS: Last Day to Vote in 3rd Annual Seiyū Awards
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8502 Location: Penguinopolis |
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I voted for my favorite voice talent, Yoshiko Sakakibara, for her role as Integra Hellsing in Hellsing Ultimate.
She deserves a lot of recognition, not just for this, but for her amazing body of work. Why, in her career she's been a Knight Saber, Yang Wen-li's wife, the usurper to the Zeon throne, Jerid Messa's girlfriend, the leader of a Patlabor team, the Prime Minister of Japan, a research scientist, and the leader of an organization out to kill vampires. A more popular voice talent will win, no doubt, but Sakakibara is the only one who deserves my vote. |
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Kit-Tsukasa
Posts: 930 |
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Voted in both the Japanese site and English site.
English Site: Megumi Nakajima (Ranka Lee in Macross Frontier). BE MYSELF! ^___^ Japanese Site: Leads: Jun Fukuyama (Lelouch in Geass R2, Kei in Special A, Lawrence in Spice and Wolf), Nana Mizuki (Fate in Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha, Allison and Lillia in Allison and Lillia) Supporting: Hiroshi Kamiya (Tieria in Gundam 00, Micheal in Macross Frontier), Rie Kugimiya (Nagi Sanzenin in Hayate no Gotoku!, Taiga in Toradora!, Nemu in Bleach, Alisa in Nanoha) New: male one blank, Megumi Nakajima (Ranka Lee in Macross Frontier) Singing: May'n (Lion, Northern Cross, Nyan Nyan Service Medley, Infinity, Iteza Gogo Kuji Don't Be Late!, Yousei, Diamond Crevasse) Personality: blank Special Merit Award: Yoko Kanno Merit Award: Hideaki Anno (director Eva 1.0, key animation SDF Macross) Synergy: ara? Kei Tomiyama Award: Norio Wakamoto (Charles in Geass, Narrator in Hayate no Gotoku!, Black Shadow in F-Zero GP Legend, Cell in DBZ, Nabuu Brothers in Ga-Rei -Zero-) Rooting mainly for Nana Mizuki, Rie Kugimiya, and especially May'n and Megumi Nakajima |
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Sam Murai
 Posts: 1051 |
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Voted for Fumiko Orikasa ("Yasako" in Dennou Coil). There were many great, highly-believable performances in the cast and Orikasa, playing the main character, was representative of how good the cast was as a whole and what helped make the show work so well. I'm not sure she'll pull many votes, as someone from a more popular show like Code Geass or Macross Frontier will most likely get it, but it was still nice to get some sort of voice in the voting process.
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sailorsean
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I voted for Haruka Tomatsu. She was an unbelievable Nagi in Kannagi.
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Big Hed
 Posts: 1607 Location: Melbourne, Australia |
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Too many good performances in 2008 alone, let alone the previous years. I don't think I can pick just one.
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houkoholic
Posts: 83 Location: Japan |
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May'n is not a seiyuu. She's just a singer.
Neither is Kanno Yoko, she's a musician.
He's a director, not a seiyuu. All nominations are for seiyuu (voice actors) ONLY. |
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Crystal
Posts: 283 |
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Grrr . . . everyone acts like seiyuu are better than English speaking voice actors, but then why the hell are there almost no seiyuu over 25 anymore? Notice that Aya Hisakawa, Kappei Yamaguchi and Megumi Hayashibara hardly ever play main characters anymore? The seiyuu industry is WAY too focused on youth and good looks, which doesn't even make sense since YOU CAN'T BE SEEN when recording.
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houkoholic
Posts: 83 Location: Japan |
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That's just a blatant lie. The current top seiyuu - even the majority of the top idol seiyuu - are nearly all around the 30s or above. Besides what does age has anything to do with the quality of voice acting?
Some of them choosed to do different things and they prioritise their life. Hayashibara Megumi has a family and a daughter she choosed to put more focus on her family. Same with Hisakawa Aya who is also married. Yamaguchi Kappei are still in many lead roles, a quick wiki search would show you that he was the lead or main characters in De Capo 2, One Outs, Neoangelique Abyss and the Death Note Special just for the year 2008. Plus he is doing musical work and a whole bunch of Yaoi CD dramas. He's got plenty of work, just because they are not in your field of interest or works that you have access to doesn't mean he's not getting any jobs. Also it's plenty evident that they are not getting pushed out by the industry itself, as for example Inoue Kikuko who is well into her 40s as well as having a daughter is still very actively involved in all aspects of a seiyuu career. Furuya Tohru despite being a seiyuu since the 70s still get to do a lot of roles (he even got lead in Casshin Sins this year). A lot of the older seiyuu also choosed to step back from the front lines to raise new talents by forming their own training schools or even form unions to help raise the terrible wage the seiyuu are given. It's all a matter of personal choices.
The industry has been transisting into a stage of cross-media promotion where it requires the talents to be as multi-talented as possible - this means not only do they have to be able to voice act, but also sing, host radio shows, webcasts, write for magazine columns and as well as pose for the occasional magazine photo shots and video interviews. This trend has been going on for a LONG time (almost 2 decades) and FWIW, Hayashibara Megumi as well as Hisakawa Aya were THE fore-runners of this trend (they were both involved in the seiyuu idol group DoCo which originated from Ranma, which sparked this trend of seiyuu idols in the first place). 18 years ago when Hayashibara and Hisakawa were in *their 20s* and still looking pure and cute they had pushed off other older seiyuu and now had simply became the victum of the same trend they set in the first place, so cry me a river. Nice try at trolling though. |
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posterior_praiser
 Posts: 296 |
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Well...the Japanese talent get the first kick at the can, so to speak, so people often associate the Japanese voices with the characters. I prefer seiyuu because there is simply a wider talent pool, and thus you can find talent that better suits the roles. ...And playing L in Death Note as recently as 2 years ago isn't a good role to get? Come on. Yamaguchi Kappei has been around for a long time. He's gotten many amazing roles, and will probably still continue to get them. There are still many vets in the business, who still do alot of work. Some have so much success by their 30s that they take time off to get married, have children and you know, have a life? There are also plenty of seiyuu over 30 around who get great roles too. Fukuyama Jun, for example, is in his 30s now and he's just starting to give his best performances. And what about Seki Tomokazu? He's still doing great work in Nodame Cantabile, for example. But at the same time, the seiyuu who are over 30 have likely been around for at least 10 years and have had their biggest roles already, so why is it unfair for new talent to be used? Also, on the matter of youth and good looks: Seiyuu are more celebrities in Japan than VAs are here. And in Japan, as elsewhere, being a celebrity can be shallow work, and can have shallow expectations attached to it. |
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Crystal
Posts: 283 |
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Yeah, but I don't see the point of it being shallow when you're not even seen when you're doing the job that got you where you are today. I guess SOME are still in their 30s or 40s, but I was thinking of those such as Aya Hirano, Ami Koshimizu, Marina Inoue, etc. I'm NOT bashing them, but I was annoyed that it was mostly people who were around 18-23 that were getting all the nominations and not those who've had more experience and such. I guess when I learned of the cast in Lucky Star, I thought it was weird that the oldest member of the main cast was only 26-27 (Aya Endo). When I was thinking of voice talent in America, I was necessarily thinking of anime dub actors, but more like Maurice LaMarche, Rob Paulsen, Frank Welker, Billy West who are all in their 50s or older but are still working and INCREDIBLY versitile and talented. |
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posterior_praiser
Posts: 296 |
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Well you also have to keep in mind that the seiyuu awards are more of a popularity contest than anything else, and then it won't surprise you that the young or most attractive candidates get more votes. I voted for my favorite seiyuu. She's won at the awards before, probably cause she voices bishounen who tend to have ambiguous sexual orientations. But I still voted for her, cause I believe she's very talented. |
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houkoholic
Posts: 83 Location: Japan |
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No, it's because one of the criteria is that the nominated work has to be released in the year of the award. So for example there is no stopping you from nominating Hayashibara Megumi for Slayers Revolution as female lead this year, though you can't nominate her for something like Ranma from Ranma 1/2 for 2008. The popularity of the shows/roles just plays along with it. It's like you can't put Audrey Hepburn as best actress into the 2008 Oscars. |
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posterior_praiser
Posts: 296 |
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You're missing my point. Yes, of course it's for recent work, but the thing is that the popular vote decides who wins (or narrows the field at least. I'm not sure about the rules) and when people vote, they don't always vote based on talent alone. It's like American idol, or what have you. The most talented person doesn't always win. Sometimes it's the person who happens to get the most attention, or happens to be good looking and popular with the people who watch. It's a good way to get attention for seiyuu, but it isn't at all a measure of who gave the best performances of the year necessarily. |
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fuuma_monou
 Posts: 1853 Location: Quezon City, Philippines |
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My understanding is that seiyuu are paid according to seniority. The longer they've been working, the more they have to be paid. Getting fresh new faces/voices is pretty much a cost-cutting decision. And seiyuu do a LOT of public events to promote anime/games/drama CDs they perform in, so looking cute factors in. |
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